Other electrical problem on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
2 fires 2 of the 10 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 report other electrical problem at a median of 85,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 12th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 55,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 160,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 105,391 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52,914 miles | 67,508 miles | 83,002 miles | 113,645 miles | 158,305 miles |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Of these reports, 2 a fire is mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $250–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 29 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2025 at 210,000 miles.
By volume the 2014 carries the most reports, with 208; the 2002 has 10. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
Dt*: the contact stated while the vehicle was parked, the engine compartment caught on fire and burned the vehicle and the garage doors. The fire department and police responded to the emergency call. The fire department determined the fuse box caused the fire. The reports were prepared by both the fire department and police department. Pictures were taken at the scene. The manufacturer was notified. Updated 9/27/2006 - *nm
While driving vehicle began to smoke from engine compartment, noise came from engine compartment, vehicle significantly lost power. Driver could not shut off engine....starter was trying to crank engine-even when ignition was in shut off position. Engine suddenly did not have full power. Smoke and burning smell continued to increase from engine compartment with no way to shut off engine. Gm relay #12193614 was replaced, as well as burnt out starter. Relay is available to NHTSA. Gm was not interested accessing part when offered to them. *tr
Abs recall for 2002 chevy pickups issued in sep 2005. Issue was while I was in slow moving 3 to 5 MPH ABS system would activate and can cause a potential crash. Recall was to perform a inspection of the ABS system. Clean and apply a rust preventive and confirm sensor was receiving proper signal. My pickup was serviced at our local dealership in november 2005. This pickup was not having any issues with ABS system at that time of service. The dealership change out the passenger side sensor (due to rust) and performed the required maintenance on the driver side. Now 36,000 miles later I almost had two accidents in the same day due to the ABS system activation while stopping in slow speed. (I can detail the potential accident later) the ABS was only coming on at random and not all the time. I found out from the dealership and g.m. Once the pickup was service the recall had been taken care any other issues if up to the owner to take care of. My complaint is in just cleaning and putting rust preventive in place is not a long term fix but only temporary fix and the safety issue still exist in the salt belt states. The test method is to…
Also reported on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 1500
Loss of braking
Other brake problem
ABS module or sensor failure
Brake line, hose or caliper failure
Parking brake failure
Rust or structural corrosion
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 10 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does other electrical problem happen on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 1500?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 85,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 70,000 miles and a quarter after 115,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2002 Chevrolet Silverado 1500?
10 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed